East Lyme — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Wednesday announced the opening of a unit at York Correctional Institution that will try to help women prisoners reintegrate when released.  

The goal of the Keys to Success Reintegration Unit at the state's only women's facility, which began operating Feb. 1, is to "promote successful opportunities for incarcerated women re-entering the community."

The third of its kind to be announced in less than a year, the unit is part of Malloy's Second Chance Society initiative.

"These are our brothers and sisters that are in these institutions. These are our children and grandchildren," Malloy said. "The sooner we find a way to be more supportive and more helpful and get more of them employed, the better off we're going to be, and that's what we're trying to do."

Those accepted to the unit are able to choose activities and programs from the "pathway" in which they're most interested, whether that's education, recovery, relationships, faith and spirituality or community service.

From there, staffers work with the offenders to give them knowledge and skills related to their categories of choice while also addressing the issues that contributed to their incarceration initially.

Currently, 56 offenders participate in the program, which has a cap of 68.

According to Warden Stephen Faucher, women have to apply and be interviewed to be accepted. Only those who are "minimum level" offenders with sentences that are five years or less are considered.

Amymarie Gully, a 49-year-old from Danbury who's about one year into her 30-month sentence at York Correctional, said the program already is positively impacting her.

"Three weeks ago, I was sitting in a cell locked up 90 percent of the time," Gully said. "Today, I'm up every morning. I am downstairs teaching. I know computers and typing and things like that. I have responsibilities, and I'm starting to feel useful again."

"When you're not doing anything, you don't feel needed," she continued. "It just reinforces that you're not wanted or needed or important."

Gully first spent time at York when she was 18.

Most recently, she was convicted of first-degree larceny for stealing money from her employer. It's her fourth stint at York, she said.

But, Gully said, life at the facility is different now than it was about 30 years ago, when almost no programs were offered.

She used an analogy to describe how it used to be.

"When I'm driving a car, I know my brakes are going bad, I know something's wrong, but I can't fix that," Gully said. "I have to go to the appropriate person to fix it. If I'm lucky enough, I find the right one that can teach me how to fix it so I can do it by myself the next time. You can't just say, 'Go fix your brakes.' I'm not going to know how."

Gully said she knows it will be hard to overcome the "convicted felon" label once she's out, but, with the help of the reintegration unit, she wants to so she can help stop other 18-year-olds from following in her footsteps.

Malloy said his Second Chance Society efforts are part of a push to "rethink" the state's approach to corrections.

He noted that it costs about $120 per inmate per night they're housed. He didn't provide a number as to how much the new unit at York might increase costs.

Malloy said the state's crime rate is at its lowest in more than 40 years.

Malloy said people shouldn't think that the Second Chance Society initiative is contributing to the region's problems because offenders are getting out sooner and reoffending.

He said issues like increased heroin use can be attributed to the plummeting price of the drug and its increasing potency.

"You can kill yourself for as little as $3.50," Malloy said, adding that a major part of the solution will be to stop people from buying opioids like heroin.

The reintegration unit at York joins two others in Connecticut: The Cybulski Community Reintegration Center for men, which opened in April 2015, and the Veterans Unit for military veterans, which opened in November 2015.

Department of Correction Commissioner Scott Semple said more reintegration units are planned.

Next month, he said, the department will open another specialized unit within the Willard-Cybulski Correctional Institution in Enfield, which will be a 110-bed unit targeted at reducing recidivism among those who've been convicted of a DUI.

Additionally, Semple said "plans are in the works" to create another such unit tailored for offenders who have mental health needs.

"It is in all of our best interests that formerly incarcerated individuals successfully return to their neighborhoods, your neighborhoods, our communities," he said.

l.boyle@theday.com

Twitter: @LindsayABoyle